Monday Open Thread

I'm off to see American Made. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Update: American Made was much better than I expected. Movie theaters sure are different these days. (I go to the movies about once a year or less.) When we bought our tickets at the window (not in advance) we got to pick assigned seats. All the seats were recliners where you pressed a button to extend and keep your legs raised. The seats had tray tables, not just drink holders. There were only about 20 people in the theater (and not many people milling around the 15 plex theater) so I guess 4pm on Mondays is a good time to go to the movies.

And yes, even if you are not a Tom Cruise fan (and I'm pretty lukewarm on him usually), he's really good in this film.

Fails Puerto Rico." by new NYTimes columnist, Michelle Goldberg (formerly with Slate). The result of the US inauguration of one of its worst people as president...a nasty showbiz huckster. And, written before Trump's more recent utterances that officials should be proud of the hurricane death count; and that the P.R. hurricane has thrown the budget out of whack.

along with its allies in the death penalty, voted against a UN Human Rights Resolution that asks consideration by countries that have not yet abolished the death penalty to ensure that it is not imposed as a sanction for specific forms of conduct such as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery, and consensual same sex relations.

Despite the No Vote of the US and its allies, including Burundi, China, Egypt, India, Iraq, Japan, and Qatar, the resolution passed, 27 to 13. The passage of the Resolution, no doubt, left Pence and mother to commiserate with Trump and Melania and the so called Judge, Roy (or as Trump calls him, Ray) Moore, the likely next US senator from the great state of Alabama.

is to build a border wall and put travel bans in place to keep brown people out. You know, cause they're brown and stuff. Yet a white guy with a machine gun shoots up the LV strip and it's 'move along folks, nothing to see here.' What a country.

has a sterling sense of humor: just kidding about how hurricane relief to Puerto Rico is going to mess up the federal budget. Those cute little Rito Porcans surely got a good chuckle out of that one, and just when they needed a laugh.

All 4 would bomb the sh*t out of people for far too few reasons, but at least the three previous had something resembling basic human emotional responses to traumatized individuals they swore to serve. Can't say that for the current motherf*cker.

I'll never be ashamed of this land and it's people, there's too many good ones. But I share your shame in our institutions and who we choose to steward them. This is rock bottom....but Trump being Trump, a new low is right around the corner. Believe me.

its leadership, empathy and compassion to the late night comedians. A YouTube scan of Jimmmy Kimmel, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers, and Stephen Colbert shows the kind of thoughtfulness and concern for America that is missing from the clown that inhabits the White House.

done in our names by our so-called leaders that are truly shameful and not representative of the ideals and principles this nation is supposed to stand for; they are corrupting and perverting what being an American represents.

So, I am still proud of being an American as I define that label, but I won't defend or excuse or remain silent about either the actions/policies I feel are antithetical to what being an American is supposed to be, or the people behind those policies and actions.

I am more and more coming to believe that one's political beliefs cannot and should not be able to be separated from one's character: if you believe that health care, food and shelter are not a right, that people are less than on the basis of their economic status, their race or gender or sexual orientation, you are not a person of good character who just doesn't happen to see things the same way I do. You are the problem, not the solution, and you demean and devalue America - and the precious religion you hide behind - every time you decide that it doesn't matter that people are dying for lack of health care, or living on the streets or working 3 jobs and barely able to hold it together.

The congressman then suggests that she get an abortion when she confides to him that she thinks that she's pregnant. It's a false alarm, but she saves the incriminating text messages.

The congressman then quickly blames his staff when his lover subsequently calls him out on one of his hypocritical anti-abortion public statements. Meanwhile, the married lover's cuckolded husband files for divorce and names the congressman as the third party when his wife tries to seek alimony.

It's a rather pathetic Beltway farce that I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

"We're like sheep without a shepherd.
We don't know how to be alone.
So we wander 'round this desert,
And wind up following the wrong gods home.
But the flock cries out for another,
And they keep answering that bell
As one more starry-eyed messiah
Meets a violent farewell."
- The Eagles, "Learn to Be Still" (1994)

The U.S. Africa Command has hundreds of soldiers deployed across the region, including at an air facility in Agadez, and offers training and support to Niger�s army in aspects such as intelligence gathering and surveillance.

Ray poisoned a young man, knowing full well that it would not only disqualify him from the life-saving trial but could kill him. Is that an irredeemable turn for the character? This feels like it could be a moment that's hard to come back from narratively, especially if Smitty dies. It's a plot twist that makes it difficult for the writers to ever give Ray a happy ending.

i like vulture. but i would say if you expected a happy ending, you have not been paying attention.

and it all went down pretty much as I imagined it would - a number of questions were answered, but I can understand why Ray was so angry. The guy who seemingly was in charge of everyone and everything couldn't control this, not that he didn't try. And Abby finally found something she could control - too bad it was her life.

But the whole meningitis thing with Avi and the doctor and then in the hospital? A little too unbelievable. In some ways, a little too neat a package, I think.

Associates of President Trump and his company have turned over documents to federal investigators that reveal two previously unreported contacts from Russia during the 2016 campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.

In one case, Trump's personal attorney and a business associate exchanged emails weeks before the Republican National Convention about the lawyer possibly traveling to an economic conference in Russia that would be attended by top Russian financial and government leaders, including President Vladi­mir Putin, according to people familiar with the correspondence.

In the other case, the same Trump attorney, Michael Cohen, received a proposal in late 2015 for a Moscow residential project from a company founded by a billionaire who once served in the upper house of the Russian parliament, these people said. The previously unreported inquiry marks the second proposal for a Trump-branded Moscow project that was delivered to the company during the presidential campaign and has since come to light.

another cocaine story worth following is the FX series SNOWFALL. about the dumping of crack on LA in the 80s to fund the Contras.

it has the right all upset. which is good enough for me. the creator John Riddley needs no introduction.

I would actually be interested in the thoughts of someone, anyone who has some real knowledge of the events. i do not doubt they are dramatized but i have seen nothing i thought was not possible. or even plausible.

It's so hard to not do that :) I passed a whole block of houses last week inside the beltway and everyone was flying a gay pride flag from their 2nd story balcony. All the houses were similar in structure and white picket fences. I started laughing out loud. A whole DC block making the right cry :)

It was done in a somewhat campy way, which works, because the subject matter is otherwise pretty bleak.

It seemed to get the history right: U.S. covert support of the Contras, arms from the Israelis to the U.S., and then to the Contras (the Israelis armed the Guatemalan military to reward Guatemala's crucial UN vote on statehood) and of course the Ollie North involvement.

Tom Cruz was very entertaining as the always up-beat, overly optimistic family man drug smuggler/pilot.

Just watched the short Netflix documentary, Long Shot, about a man, Juan Catalan, falsely accused of murder in Los Angeles. His only hope was to prove he was at a Dodger game. Unfortunately, no one at the game, other than his family, remembered him and there wasn't any clear camera footage from regular TV coverage.

Fortunately, HBO just happened to be filming an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm at Dodger Stadium that day and Juan was filmed in some of the takes of Larry David walking around and sitting in the stadium.

Even with this proof, the prosecutor refused to drop charges because she felt Catalan still had time to commit the crime. It took a little more detective work to finally persuade the judge to dismiss the case.

Lots of strange and bad behavior in this case. Catalan received a civil settlement because of the unethical tactics the police used while interrogating him. The judge was on the fence with her decision to dismiss so she played the interrogation video to her children and asked if he sounded like a murderer. Is that what judges are supposed to do?

The real hero wasn't Larry David, it was Catalan's lawyer, Todd Melnik. Without his effort Juan would probably be serving life or sitting on death row.

Larry David would have messed up somehow and they guy would have been convicted. Maybe he Larry says something stupid on the witness stand.

I'm also glad Curb Your Enthusiasm is back. I've seen every one but don't remember the scene at Dodger Stadium for some reason. Apparently, in that episode, Larry is stuck in traffic trying to get to the game, so he picks up a street prostitute so he can drive in the carpool lane.

Speaker Paul Ryan last week urged the White House to reconsider ousting Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, his longtime friend who had come under fire for often using a taxpayer-funded private jet for travel, according to two people with knowledge of the call.

John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, called the Wisconsin Republican minutes before the departure was announced Friday afternoon. It was a heads-up call, one White House official said.

Ryan urged Kelly to reconsider and touted the Georgia Republican's experience in Congress and work in the administration, one of the people familiar with the call said.

Price has long had the speaker's ear on policy matters and was part of Ryan's old "Jedi Council," a group of fiscal conservative rabble-rousers who used to powwow when Republicans were in the minority.

But Kelly made clear that Price was out, and the call quickly ended, one of the people said.

There has never been a better example of film making gone horribly wrong, of how a group of otherwise pretty talented people Catherine MacCormack, Edward Burns, Ben Kingsley (wearing the most hilarious hair until youknowwho), really good effects for the time, 2005, and a lot of money can all come together to pinch a loaf for the ages.

Based on a truly classic short story by Ray Bradbury which is, if I remember 14 pages, which you really should read. Before or after doesn't matter because it has almost no recognisable relation to the movie.

Oct 03 2017
Washington--Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today released the following statement on the need to close the automatic weapon loophole:

"The sale and manufacture of automatic weapons have been illegal since 1986. Automatic weapons produced before 1986 are highly regulated and tracked by the ATF.

"Despite this, individuals are able to purchase bump fire stocks for less than $200 and easily convert a semi-automatic weapon into a firearm that can shoot between 400 and 800 rounds per minute and inflict absolute carnage. The Las Vegas shooter appears to have modified at least one of his weapons in this way.

"A ban on bump fire stocks was included in my 2013 assault weapons bill, and I'm looking at how best to proceed with legislation to finally close this loophole. This is the least we should do in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. It should be our highest priority."

called a press conference to tell everyone that Trump is "smart." Trump is terrific, also too. In case you were wondering.

An NBC report indicated that, last summer, at the time of Trump's educational story told to the Boy Scouts at their Jamboree about his friend who had orgies on his yacht, Tillerson declared aloud that Trump was an effing moron.

Rex is reported to have wanted to quit but was talked off the ledge by Pence (who gave him a pep talk) and Mattis and Kelly (who begged him to stay).

While praising Trump, Rex did not flat out deny that he called Trump a moron (maybe it was imbecile?). only saying on that score that "I'm not going to deal with petty stuff like that."

Yes, no need to deal with a petty matter such as his Secretary of State expresses his view on the President in moronic terms. After all, Trump is a genius---says no one who knows him or works with him.

Tillerson may be gone by Halloween, even with his grovelling...this episode plus his efforts at diplomacy in North Korea are really bad marks. But, then, Tillerson has said that he really did not want the job of SOS, and did not seek it. But his wife told him to do it: The wife said "I told you God's not through with you." But, Trump may be.

low. There have been 260 deaths from mass shootings in 2017 alone. The report I read defined a mass shooting as one where 4 or more people were shot, shot not killed. I went through the report for 2017 adding up the number of deaths in each case. Even allowing for a little faulty counting on my part, your number of deaths since Nov. 2009 is just too low.

Gun control advocates identified 156 mass shootings in the United States over the past eight years.

Everytown for Gun Safety, which is backed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, published an analysis Tuesday that said 848 people were killed and another 339 were injured during U.S. mass shootings from 2009 to 2016.

The figures do not include the 66 mass shooters who turned the gun on themselves, or the 17 shooters killed by police, according to Everytown.

High-profile mass shootings in public places such as an Orlando nightclub or Sandy Hook Elementary School often garner the most attention. But the study found that more than half of the mass shootings it tracked were a result of domestic violence in the home.

That article in The Hill was from April, and the study was only through 2016, so the 848 people does not include the 58 killed in Las Vegas - or any other victims of mass shootings that took place in 2017.

"This data -- compiled from Mother Jones; Grant Duwe, author of 'Mass Murder in the United States: A History,' and Washington Post research -- does not include gang killings, shootings that began as other crimes such as robberies, and killings that involved only the shooter's family."

Those parameters are a lot narrower than the ones you're using, and account for the lower total. But yours is a more accurate picture of the carnage. I don't understand any rationale for excluding those incidents which involved only a shooter's family.